Personal watercrafts have become very popular in recent years for recreational use. There also has been an increasing use of personal watercrafts in search and rescue operations and for transportation in coastal communities.
The seat of a conventional two- or three-seat personal watercraft is disposed on a pedestal formed by the deck of the personal watercraft. On a typical personal watercraft, the pedestal extends upwards from a reboarding platform positioned behind it, and upwards from the left and right footwells. It is known in the art to divide the seat in portions which can be removed separately or rearranged. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 8,261,683 B2 issued on Sep. 11, 2012, there is described a personal watercraft having two interchangeable rear seat portions: components 40, 41 which provide a second passenger seat and components 30, 31 which make it a two-seater vessel. Other known seat configurations are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,474,389 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 8,146,524 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,571,692 B2 among other references.
The reboarding platform typically extends across the rear of the vessel, above the transom, and is bordered at its front by the pedestal and the left and right footwells. However, the reboarding platform is typically only large enough to enable a user to climb out of the water and onto the vessel. Some personal watercrafts have large rear platforms such as personal watercraft adapted for search and rescue operations. For instance, in the personal watercraft described in US 2011/0253028 A1 published on Oct. 20, 2011, the extended rear platform may provide room for rescuers or passengers.
It would be desirable to have a personal watercraft that provides the convenience of multiple seats while also providing the advantages of the extended rear platform.
Therefore, there is a desire for a personal watercraft having multiple seats and an extended rear platform, but which does not significantly increase the size of the personal watercraft compared to existing personal watercraft having multiple seats.